The present invention relates to methods for selectively O-alkylating chain or cyclic compounds having CONH groups or enol structures thereof in the molecules. Particularly it relates to methods suitable for preparing pyrimidyloxy or pyridyloxy derivatives, which are compounds useful as intermediates for agrochemicals and medicines, from pyrimidone or pyridone derivatives efficiently and highly selectively in high yields.
It is known that, when a chain or cyclic compound having one or more CONH groups or enol structures thereof as partial structures in the molecule is alkylated in a basic condition, N-alkyl compounds are produced in preference. Because of this, to obtain O-alkyll compounds selectively, for example, a carbonyl group was halogenated and then a substitution reaction was carried out with a corresponding alcohol in the presence of a base, or in the case of urea structure an isothiourea was synthesized from a corresponding thiourea and a substitution reaction was carried out with a corresponding alcohol. In other words, it was necessary to synthesize a halogenated compound or an isothiourea. There has been a problem that the above methods have applicable limits depending on substrates used.
Meanwhile, pyridyloxy or pyrimidyloxy derivatives are important as intermediates for agrochemicals, medicines and the like. For example, a series of compounds relating to them and their production processes are disclosed in EP 0472 224. However, when pyridyloxy or pyrimidyloxy derivatives are produced by the alkylation reactions of pyridone or pyrimidone compounds, byproducts unusable as target compounds are produced by N-alkylation reactions. Therefore the said processes have not been satisfactory economically.
In addition, J. Org. Chem. 32 4040 (1967) and Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Sho 63-216848 describe examples of preparing pyridyloxy derivatives and pyrimidyloxy derivatives by alkylation reactions of pyridone or pyrimidone with the use of alkali metal salts or silver salts. They have not been satisfactory as industrial production processes because of a large amount of N-alkylated byproducts produced other than target compounds or use of expensive silver salts.
In WO 97/01538 processes for the preparation of pyridyloxy derivatives are disclosed, but are limited to alkylation reactions of pyridones having a substituent at the position of 6.
As described above, in conventional technology, it is necessary to synthesize halogenated compounds or isothioureas, and there have been a problem of applicable limits depending on substrates used. Besides satisfactory results have not been accomplished, due to unnecessary byproducts produced when pyrimidone or pyridone compounds used as starting materials are changed to salts, such as alkali metal salts or silver salts, to react with various alkylating agents.
This invention is to provide economically advantageous methods that a chain or cyclic compound having one or more CONH groups or enol structures thereof as partial structures in the molecule, whose representatives are pyrimidone or pyridone compounds, is O-alkyllated highly selectively by a novel method to give a target compound selectively in high yield or very efficiently.
This invention relates to selective O-alkyllation methods characterized in that, in an O-alkyllation reaction of a chain or cyclic compound having one or more structures represented by Formula (I) 
as partial structures, with Compound RL having a leaving group (wherein R is optionally substituted alkyl, optionally substituted allyl or optionally substituted aralkyl, and L is a leaving group), a monovalent copper salt derived from the said chain or cyclic compound is reacted in the presence of a phosphorus compound represented by Formula (II) 
(wherein R1, R2 and R3 are, each same or different, hydrogen, alkyl, aryl, aralkyl, alkoxy, aryloxy or aralkyloxy).
The present invention also relates to methods for selectively O-alkyllating pyrimidone, pyridone or triazine compounds of which the cyclic compounds having one or more structures represented by Formula (I) as partial structures are represented by Formula (III) 
(wherein X and Y are each independently CH or N; R4 is hydrogen, lower alkyl, haloalkyl or lower alkoxy; and R5 is hydrogen, lower alkyl or trifluoromethyl). This invention also relates to selective O-alkyllation methods characterized in that the compound having a leaving group is represented by Formula (IV) 
(wherein L is a leaving group; R6 is lower alkyl; and W and Z are both hydrogen or become one to form xe2x95x90O, xe2x95x90NOCH3 or xe2x95x90CHOCH3), or by Formula (V) 
(wherein R7 and R8 are, same or different, chain or branched lower alkyl, haloalkyl, cycloalkyl or aralkyl; and L is as defined above). The present invention also relates to methods for selectively O-alkyllation compounds where Formula (III) is represented by 
(wherein R9 is lower alkyl).
The compounds used as starting materials in the present invention and having one or more structures represented by Formula (I) as partial structures in the molecules, that is, compounds having one or more CONH groups or enol structures thereof as partial structures in the molecules, are not particularly restricted if they have structures able to form copper salts with monovalent copper compounds such as copper (I) oxide. Concrete examples include compounds having basic skeletons such as those shown below: 
Compounds shown in brackets are tautomers.
Particularly pyrimidyloxy compounds, pyridyloxy compounds or triazinyloxy compounds, which are useful as intermediates for agrochemicals or medicines, can be produced if the methods of the present invention are applied to pyrimidone, pyridone or triazine compounds represented by Formula (III) 
(wherein X and Y are each independently CH or N; R4 is hydrogen, lower alkyl, haloalkyl or lower alkoxy; and R5 is hydrogen, lower alkyl or trifluoromethyl),. Concrete examples include compounds shown in the following: 
In the present invention, general preparation methods to derive a monovalent copper salt from a chain or cyclic compound having one or more structures represented by Formula (I) as partial structures include, for example, a dehalogenating alkali-metal reaction of an alkali metal salt, such as lithium and potassium, of the aforementioned pyrimidone or pyridone compound with monovalent halogenated copper, such as monovalent copper chloride, or synthesis by reacting monovalent copper cyanide with the aforementioned pyrimidone or pyridone compound. Synthesis by a direct dehydration reaction of the said pyrimidone or pyridone compound with the use of copper(I) oxide (Cu2O) is however easiest, and gives a monovalent copper salt with high purity. Besides, it gives extremely good results to the following alkylation reaction.
Compound RL having a leaving group, which is used in the reaction with a copper salt in the present invention, has Leaving Group L. L is preferably halogen or a substituted or unsubstituted arylsulfonic acid residue, and is more preferably selected from the group consisting of chlorine, bromine, iodine and tosyloxy. R is a group corresponding to the structure required for a target compound of pyrimidyloxy or pyridyloxy derivative, and is not particularly restricted. It represents optionally substituted alkyl, allyl or aralkyl depending on the purpose. Concrete examples include methyl, ethyl, isopropyl, allyl and benzyl. Among them, compounds represented by Formulae (IV) and (V) are particularly useful because produced compounds become intermediates for agrochemicals and medicines when selective O-alkyllation reactions are carried out using them. Concrete examples of compounds represented by Formulae (IV) and (V) include those shown in the following: 
Ts is a p-toluenesulfonyl group.
Phosphorus compounds used in the present invention, which are added to facilitate reactions and actions to improve reaction selectivity, are preferably those substantially inactive to O-alkyllation reactions and with high affinity with various reaction reagents used in the present invention, for example, the said monovalent copper salts of pyrimidyloxy or pyridyloxy compounds. Phosphites have excellent properties in such characteristics and include lower alkyl phosphites such as trimethyl phosphite, triethyl phosphite, tri-n-butyl phosphite and others; or partially aryl substituted lower alkyl phosphites such as diphenylethyl phosphite and phenyldimethyl phosphite; or triaryl phosphites such as triphenyl phosphite; and further alkyl phosphines such as triethylphosphine, tributylphosphine, butyldiphenylphosphine and triphenylphosphine; arylphosphines and alkylarylphosphines. Phosphorus compounds to be added in this invention are suitably selected from the said organic phosphorus compounds. They are used alone, or two or more of them are mixed to use.
Amounts of phosphorus compounds mentioned above are not particularly restricted. An appropriate amount is used so that a reaction is carried out smoothly. It can be expected that an addition of 1 mol to 1 mol of a monovalent copper salt of alkylating agent preferably facilitates a desired reaction, and further a supplementary addition of up to about 1 mol favorably facilitates the reaction.
Solvents preferably used in the present invention include hydrocarbons such as hexane, octane and decane; and aromatic hydrocarbons such as benzene and toluene. These solvents can be also used when monovalent copper salts are produced. They are particularly advantageous to implement the methods of the present invention, because, in case of the preparation of copper salts by reactions with monovalent copper oxide, water produced from the reactions can be separated in turn to the bottom layer to remove so that monovalent copper salts of these compounds can be obtained with high purity and water removed without isolating them. In the present invention, in addition to the aforementioned solvents, ordinary organic solvents can be used, including ketones such as acetone, methyl ethyl ketone and methyl t-butyl ketone; ethers such as tetrahydrofuran, dimethyl ether and diethyl ether; esters such as ethyl acetate; aprotic polar solvents such as dimethyl sulfoxide and dimethyl furan; and alcohols such as methanol, ethanol and isopropanol. Amounts of solvents used are not particularly restricted. Amounts for carrying out reactions as homogeneous as possible may be used. It is not necessary to use more than required or appropriate. In equal-molar reactions amounts of solvents used are approximately 3.5 to 7 liters/Kg to the total weight (Kg) of starting materials added. A yardstick for a volume (liter) of solvents used for the reactions in the present invention is about 5 liters/Kg, an intermediate value of the above.
The present invention is further described in detail in reference to Examples comparing with Comparative Examples. This invention is not restricted at all by these examples. xe2x80x9c%xe2x80x9d used in Examples and Comparative Examples is % by weight.